10 Jul Should your company be a luxury brand?

The luxury goods market is worth around $200 billion annually. This statistic alone should encourage you to examine your brand positioning, and ask if the luxury market is the right fit for your product.

Much of the work of creating a luxury brand is in the story telling. Once customers begin to associate your brand with luxury, it can be relatively simple to keep building on that brand persona. If your brand is interested in creating trends, has a rich back story or is keen to break out of the premium market, it may be time to examine the benefits of becoming a luxury brand.

There are other reasons why it’s smart to consider positioning your brand as a luxury brand. Let’s examine some of them.

Create an identity

Luxury brands set the bar for others to follow. Luxury brands do not consider how to position themselves in the market, as they have no peers. If your brand has an identifiable voice, consider pulling away from competitors and building that independence. Defining trends and breathing creativity are what luxury products do.

Create desire fueled by pride in accomplishments

As customers accomplish goals, they seek to display their success through engagement with luxury brands. This pride in achievement drives customers to interact with luxury items that convey exclusivity and desirability. It can also create a feeling of reward in customers, as they associate success with the brand.

Create desire fueled by recognition by others

Hubristic, or snobbish pride, is the desire to display brands and to be recognised for it. This can be a way to display wealth or achievement, or a simple desire to be associated with the persona or target market of the brand. The quick inferences that are drawn about bearers of luxury brands are aspired to and manipulated by purchasers. This can motivate customers to engage with the brand, even if it may be outside of their economic reach. Desire driven by the need for recognition or social aspiration can draw market share from unexpected places.

Emotional attachment reduces price sensitivity

The emotional pull and connection with a luxury brand also diminishes customer sensitivity to price. This can be advantageous to brands as a premium can be charged with little resistance. The strength of the branding and exceptional after-sales service are often influencers in this regard.

Create a brand identity that goes beyond the product specifications

If your brand is limited to focus on high quality products with excellent specifications, it will be limited to the premium market. To truly differentiate as a luxury brand, product excellence must be matched, or even superseded by brand story. Create a rich history for the brand and develop an air of unattainable mystery to lift the brand into the next realm. The work must be done with the marketing department to develop the persona of the brand and  ensure consistency across all communication channels.

If you would like to find out more about brand positioning and how your company can make the most of the booming luxury market, get in touch with the team at Visual Caffeine to see how we could help you.